The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History (2014)

Kolbert begins the chapter with a brief history of the Neanderthal, starting with the first discovery of Neanderthal bones in the Neander Valley of Germany in 1856. Many more Neanderthal bones have been found over time, from as far away as Wales to Israel to eastern Europe. Numerous tools have been unearthed, and evidence has been found that Neanderthals, due to the colder temperatures of Europe, wore some kind of clothing and built shelters.

The Neanderthals, however, fell prey to a new species, one that has had a role in the extinction of many others: modern humans. With every place that modern humans moved to, the Neanderthals in those areas disappeared. Humans had sex with Neanderthals, and as Kolbert notes, “up to four percent” of people alive today have some Neanderthal ancestry (237). But ultimately, Neanderthals lost out to the homo sapiens who moved into their territories.

At the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Kolbert meets Svante Paabo, the Swedish head of the department of evolutionary genetics. Paabo is considered the “father of paleogenetics,” as he is responsible for developing the study of ancient DNA. His past work involved obtaining genetic information from Tasmanian tigers, giant ground sloths, and Egyptian mummies.